DEVELOPMENT OF A

TOURISM DESTINATION

Case: Erbil the capital of Kurdistan, Iraq

LAHTI UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES Faculty of Tourism Bachelor of Hospitality Management Bachelor Thesis Autumn 2015 Mira Soininen

Lahti University of Applied Sciences Degree Programme in Tourism and Hospitality

SOININEN, MIRA: Development of a tourism destination Case: Erbil the capital of Kurdistan, Iraq

Bachelor’s Thesis in Hospitality Management 51 pages, 18 pages of appendices

Autumn 2015

ABSTRACT

Tourism is one of the world’s fastest growing industries and tourism is a common national income especially in developing countries. Middle East is as a region known tourist attractions and also Iraq has its focus on tourism. Erbil the capital city of Kurdistan in North Iraq was chosen to be tourism capital of Middle East for 2014.

The purpose of this thesis was to study the development of a tourism destination and research the development of Erbil the capital city of Kurdistan. The aim was to search how Erbil has become a tourism destination and to evaluate the potential of Erbil to become a known tourism destination. This thesis operates as a tool for my commissioner: Kurdistan’s General Board of Tourism so they can use it for developing the tourism in Erbil.

I chose qualitative interviews as my research method. The interviews were conducted by one- on- one interview during the spring 2015 in the region of Kurdistan. Interviewees were local authors, companies and entrepreneurs. All in all, I conducted nine interviews. The results are divided in three different themes as the questions were.

The key finding of the research was that Erbil’s development has been quick and short and it was growing still before ISIS, the terrorist group attacked. The main deficiencies on what my commissioner should focus on are the skills of tourism employees, infrastructure and services. The main factors needed for development to continue are breakaway from Iraq, tourism employee’s education and keeping the current political stability and security. Now the development has stopped for unpredictable period of time. Nevertheless, the results are showing that Erbil has all the factors to continue the development in the future and to be a known tourism destination.

Key words: destination development, tourism destination, Middle East, qualitative research

Lahden ammattikorkeakoulu

Matkailun ala

SOININEN, MIRA: Matkailukohteen kehittyminen Case: Erbil Kurdistanin pääkaupunki, Irak

Matkailun opinnäytetyö, 51 sivua, 18 liitesivua

Syksy 2015

TIIVISTELMÄ

Matkailu on yksi mailman nopeimmiten kasvavista teollisuudenaloista ja matkailu on yleinen elinkeino etenkin kehittyvissä maissa. Lähi- Itä on alueena tunnettu sen matkakohteista ja myös Irak keskittyy matkailuun. Erbil Kurdistanin pääkaupunki Pohjois- Irakissa, valittiin vuoden 2014 Lähi- Idän matkailupääkaupungiksi.

Tämän opinnäytetyön tarkoitus oli tutkia matkailualueen kehittymistä, sekä Kurdistanin pääkaupungin Erbilin kehittymistä. Tavoitteena oli tutkia, kuinka Erbilistä on tullut matkailukohde, sekä arvioida Erbilin mahdollisuuksia tulla tunnetuksi matkailukohteeksi. Tämä opinnäytetyö toimii työkaluna toimeksiantajalleni, Kurdistanin matkailuministeriölle, jota he voivat käyttää Erbilin matkailun kehittämiseen.

Tutkimusmenetelmänä opinnäytetyössä käytin laadullista menetelmää, teemahaastattelua. Teemahaastattelut toteutettiin henkilökohtaisina haastatteluina kevään 2015 aikana Kurdistanissa. Haastateltavat olivat paikallisia päättäjiä, yrityksiä, sekä yrittäjiä. Kaiken kaikkiaan sain kerättyä yhdeksän haastattelua ja tulokset jaettiin kolmeen eri teemaan, kuten kysymyksetkin.

Keskeinen havainto tutkimuksessa oli se, että Erbilin kehitys on ollut nopea sekä lyhyt ja kasvu jatkui, kunnes terroristi ryhmä ISIS hyökkäsi. Tärkeimmät puutteet, joihin toimeksiantajani pitäisi keskittyä ovat matkailualan työntekijöiden taidot, infrastruktuuri ja palvelut. Päätekijät, joita tarvitaan kehityksen jatkuvuuteen ovat irtaantuminen Irakista, matkailualan työntekijöiden koulutus sekä turvallisuustason ja vakaan poliittisen tilanteen pysyminen nykyisenä. Tällä hetkellä kehitys on pysähtynyt määrittelemättömäksi ajaksi. Siitä huolimatta, tulokset osoittavat, että Erbilillä on kaikki tarvittavat tekijät jatkaakseen kehittymistä tulevaisuudessa ja tullakseen tunnetuksi matkailukohteeksi.

Asiasanat: matkailukohteen kehittyminen, matkailukohde, Lähi- Itä, laadullinen tutkimus

CONTENTS

1   INTRODUCTION 1  1.1   Aim and focus of the study 1  1.2   The commissioner 2  

2   TOURISM IN THE MIDDLE EAST 4  2.1   The Middle East as a tourism destination 5  2.2   Tourism in Iraq 8  2.3   The Kurdistan region 10  

3   TOURISM DESTINATION DEVELOPMENT 12  3.1   Destination planning 13  3.2   Destination identity 14  3.3   Evolution of development 17  

4   METHODOLOGY 21  4.1   Thematic interview 22  4.2   Case of Erbil 23  4.3   Gathering data in Kurdistan 25  4.4   Analysis 27  

5   RESULTS 29  5.1   Past 29  5.2   Present 32  5.3   Future 36  5.4   Reflection on theory 39  

6   CONCLUSION 45  6.1   Recommendations 47  6.2   Research evaluation 48  6.3   Thesis process and self evaluation 49  6.4   Suggestions for future research 50  

REFERENCES 52  

APPENDICES 55  

I want to thank a dear friend of mine, Helan Abdulla for her inspiration,

support and help. Without her this thesis would not exist.

1 INTRODUCTION

Tourism is one of the world’s fastest- growing industries and tourism

destinations are born globally all the time. More and more people are

travelling and destinations have understood, that they can make tourism

as a source of national income. (Roland Berger strategy consultants

2014.)

But what does it take to become a tourism destination? What kinds of

factors are needed for the development? This is what I am going to figure

out in my research. Also Iraq, which can be hard to believe, has its focus

on tourism. Especially Kurdistan’s semi autonomous region in Iraq has

boosted its economy and international companies have run a race to the

region. More companies, more people who need accommodation, catering

and entertainment options. People are also looking for new destinations to

explore and the Kurdistan region has it all to be a tourism destination.

(Kurdistan’s General Board of Tourism 2015.)

1.1 Aim and focus of the study

This thesis focuses on the case of Kurdistan’s regional capital of Erbil,

which is located in North Iraq, 354.8 kilometres north of Iraq’s capital

Baghdad. Appendix 1. Kurdistan as a region has always been known as

the peaceful area in Iraq and stands out from the rest of the country with a

good economy and safety. These factors together with oil and gas have

brought lot of western companies to the region and due to these new

people in the city all the services have grown greatly (Kurdistan’s General

Board of Tourism 2015). Erbil the capital has changed from a village to the

“next Dubai” in a few years. And this is the reason why I focus my work on

this specific city. We can tell that there is a lot of business tourism in the

city with 600 hotels and with 70% occupancy but what about other

tourism? (Rotana Hotel 2015.) This thesis concentrates on these

questions:

• How Erbil has developed into a tourism destination?

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• Which kinds of factors are needed for the development in a

future?

The aim is to evaluate potential of Erbil to become a known tourism

destination. This thesis also includes an analysis of nine qualitative theme

interviews, which the author conducted with local tourism companies and

entrepreneurs in Erbil during spring 2015. The interviews lasted from 20 to

60 minutes and were semi- structured interviews. A thematic semi-

structured interview is the best method to interview small groups of people

who come from the same industry. Thematic areas are pre- defined, but

their order and extent vary according to the interviewees (Aaltola, J. &

Valli, R. 2007). Also my own observation in the city was an important

researching method. These combined with theory and existing studies are

used to determine whether Erbil could be a tourism destination, and also

point out the successes and deficiencies in the tourism business. This

thesi’s aim is to operate as a tool for Kurdistan’s General Board of

Tourism, that they could use for developing the tourism in Erbil. Finally, it

aims to show the required activities needed for its development. In this

way this thesis can help to measure possibilities for a similar destination to

become a tourism destination.

1.2 The commissioner

The commissioner is Kurdistan’s General Board of Tourism, ministry of the

municipalities and tourism, whose work is to manage and market travel

and tourism in the Kurdistan region, as well as introduce it to the world.

Kurdistan’s General Board of Tourism is the only ministry with ISO

certification in Kurdistan. The board has a long-term master plan for the

next 25 years and currently they are working to achieve all the factors from

the plan. Making Kurdistan known internationally is an important part of

the master plan. (Kurdistan’s General Board of Tourism 2015.)

The board is implementing many comprehensive activities and projects,

and preserving and restoring the tourist attractions and the region’s

heritages. The board developes the region’s tourism in many fields such

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as sport events, religion, heritage sites, tourist attractions, historical

places, holiday vacations and so on. Their vison is for tourism to become a

lasting and a sustainable primary source of national income for the

Kurdistan region. Their mission is to develop the administrative framework

for marketing and planning of the tourism sector; strengthen partnerships

with the private sector and local communities to develop services; and to

develop tourism facilities in accordance with international quality

standards. (Kurdistan’s General Board of Tourism 2015.)

I contacted the board myself and I presented my idea for the study. The

board was glad to help. The board gave their support for this thesis and a

lot of material to research the subject. Appendix 2. I met the head of the

board Mr. Mawlawi Jabar Wahab and I interviewed the head office

manager Mr. Sadraddin Othman Hamza and his assistant.

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2 TOURISM IN THE MIDDLE EAST

Before the journey to Kurdistan, a review of the literature evaluating the

consepts of tourism in the Middle East and tourism destination

development is found in chapters 2 and 3. First it is important to make

clear what tourism is in general in the Middle East region, so we can

understand its position in global tourism. Showing statistics and

barometers help the reader understand the size of the business. The

second subtitle takes us to Iraq to see what the tourism business is locally

in Iraq. For the last subtitle I have separated Kurdistan region from Iraq to

clarify Kurdistan’s position in the tourism industry. Basic knowledge about

tourism in Iraq and Kurdistan is needed to understand the situation of Erbil

later in the study.

Tourism is one of the biggest growing industries in the world and known as

a primary income source and most important source for large number of

countries. This is usually the case in many developing countries (Roland

Berger strategy consultants 2014). Also in Kurdistan where now oil is the

biggest economic resource the wish is for tourism to be the main income

source after oil. (Kurdistan’s General Board of Tourism 2015)

Tourism is growing fast and international tourist arrivals grew by 4.4% in

2014 to 1,135 billion and will reach 1.8 billion international tourist arrivals

by 2030, according to UNWTO’s Tourism highlights 2014. Tourism is

connected to the economic situation of a country, which makes tourism

business easily changing: volatility and global competition make tourism

business very difficult. (UNWTO Tourism highlights 2014 2014.)

Why does tourism industry then matter? When tourism developed

correctly, it has improved a country’s condition in many ways, from

infrastructure to offering jobs. From figure 1 we can see global tourism in

numbers. The share of tourism in economic welfare in the country

depends on the quality and the amount of revenue tourism brings. (Why

Tourism? 2015.)

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Figure 1. Why Tourism matters? (Why Tourism? 2015.)

2.1 The Middle East as a tourism destination

The Middle East as a tourism destination area can be well known to many

of us. Turkey is known for its beaches, Jordan for Petra, Egypt for

pyramids and Dubai for its wealth. This can be some of the ideas, which

are generally conceptualized when we think about tourism in the Middle

East. But it is also so much more and includes many new growing

destinations.

Tourism in the Middle East can be divided into two categories: the first

category consist of countries with rich tourism history due to various

cultural heritage, history and archaeology such as Tunis, Jordan, Egypt,

Lebanon, Iraq and Turkey. The second category is countries with

irrelevant incoming tourism as in Gulf countries such as Saudi Arabia,

Qatar, Kuwait and the UAE (United Arab Emirates). Most interesting and

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popular sites in the Middle East have always been religious and ancient

monuments, such as the pyramids, ruins, temples, old cities and so on. In

the beginning of the 20th century, a typical trip from Europe included for

example ancient ruins in Egypt and the biblical sites of Palestine or Syria,

which were the highlights of such tourism. Marketing in this time was

showing the Middle East as a very romanticized and macigal land where

time had come to a halt. Thomas Cook was responsible for the marketing

of the Middle East to Europe and was also responsible for the

development of mass tourism in the Middle East in the beginning of the

20th century. (Daher 2007, 4–7, 41–42.)

The Middle East has succeeded in the field of tourism for many reasons.

One is the landscape, locations and sites, which have attracted

international tourists during the decades. Also the incidence of

regionalized or domestic tourism in the Middle East has been important.

Tourism in this regional has increased due to the remarkable level of

Arabs preferring not to travel to European or American destinations. This

is because of many reasons, such as strict visa regulations due to 9/11.

That is one of the reasons why locals do travel more inside the region and

big destinations like Dubai do increase its services to please all the

visitors. And one of the biggest reasons is the organization of tourism. The

level of investments and development are massive across the whole

Middle East including modern, capital intensive, high- rise hotels and

skyscrapers, especially in the Gulf States. (Daher 2007, 42–43.)

In 2013 the Middle East had mixed and volatile results in an area due to

the ongoing tension in some destinations. International tourist arrivals

(overnight visitors) grew by 5% worldwide but in the Middle East region the

number of international arrivals remained stable. In 2013 in the Middle

East there was international tourist arrivals of 52 million (0% growth),

which were 5% of the market share and international tourism receipts

were estimated at 47 US billion dollars, which was 4% of the total market

share. Figure 1 shows the numbers of tourist arrivals globally in 2013.

Compared to 2012 the Middle East’s tourism receipts were down 2%. The

change for the last year was – 0.2% and the average annual growth was

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4.5%. From the Middle East Turkey was the only country, which made it to

the top 10 ranking by international tourist arrivals. Appendix 3. (UNWTO

Tourism highlights 2014 2014.)

Figure 2. International tourist arrivals 2013. (UNWTO Tourism highlights

2014 2014.)

Results varied across every destination. The United Arab Emirate of Dubai

grew strongly by 11% while Palestine (+11%) and Oman (+8%) also had a

good growth. Other destinations faced declines. Among others, Egypt had

a significant drop in arrivals because of political tension in the country.

Also Lebanon and Jordan suffered from the conflict in neighbouring Syria.

(UNWTO Tourism highlights 2014 2014.)

The Future of Travel and Tourism in the Middle East- A Vision to 2020

(2007) shows a good perspective how travel in the region could develop

and what the visions for this region are. This research includes Bahrain,

Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria,

Turkey, Yemen and UAE. Across this region, countries, states and cities

are having a program of investment and development to increase

capacity, improve infrastructures and grow tourist numbers and revenues.

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According to estimates, over the next 20 years, upwards of 3 trillion dollars

is going directly into leisure and tourism and indirectly into the supporting

infrastructure. By 2020 the region will add airport capacity for 300 million

extra passengers, build over 600 new hotels, add 650 000 additional

rooms, grow visitor numbers to 150 million and increase the size of its

aircraft fleet by over 150% by 2025. Also 390 billion US dollar new

investments are planned in these new hotels and the developments they

form part of. All this means between 500 000 and 1 million extra staff will

be required just for these new projects, according to the WTTC (World

Travel & Tourism council) estimates of 1.5 million extra staff may need to

be increased. (The Future of Travel and Tourism in the Middle- East- A

Vision to 2020 2007.)

Due to these visions and plans concerns about the environmental impact

are rising, particularly over the level of construction waste, pollution and

energy and water efficiency and availability. (The Future of Travel and

Tourism in the Middle- East- A Vision to 2020 2007.)

Althought the The Middle East region is currently having the lowest

numbers in international tourism its plans for the future can still be realized

in spite of the size of the visions because international tourism continues

to increase. The future in the Middle East is affected by how much the

region will invest in the tourism industry and what the security situation in

its countries will be. (UNWTO Tourism highlights 2014 2014.)

2.2 Tourism in Iraq

Iraq has long been regarded as the nation with more archeological and

historical sites than any other country in the world. It is easy to conceive

this, as it was the cradle of civilization. (Kurdistan Tour Guide 2015, 30.)

Tourism has grown greatly and it has become the national income

producer right after oil. But the focus of the country’s tourism sector is on

religion in general and Iranians pilgrims so it has made the Iraqi tourism

dependent on Irans political will and economic situation. (Adib 2013.)

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Liwass Semeism, Iraq’s minister of tourism and antiquities, estimates in an

interview for The Atlantic magazine (2012) that Iraq had 1.5 million visitors

in 2011 but he points out that the majority of the visitors were pilgrims from

Iran and fewer than 200 tourists from western countries are expected to

visit Iraq in 2012. Iranian pilgrims come to Iraq to visit the ancient

mosques like Najaf and Karbala and this is where Semeism wants

potential tourist to focus on: Iraq’s thousands of years of civilization. The

country has the main holy places of the three major world religions

including the burial place of the prophet Jonah in Mosul, the birthplace of

Abraham in Ur and the oldest continuously operating churches and

monasteries. The ministry supports private companies to build new hotels

in the “holy cities”, which are expecting a huge number of pilgrims every

year. Also Geoff Hann from the British Hinterland Travel Company

believes in the future of tourism in Iraq. His company offers tours, which

visit sites as Saddam Hussein’s former palaces, ancient monasteries and

many shrine cities around Iraq. Hann says: “Iraq has been formative for

world culture and, indeed, world news for thousands years. This draws

people and always will.” (Dreazen 2012.)

But recurrent violence across Iraq in 2013 didn’t give much hope for the

travel and tourism industry. Car bombs and unrest were known in the east

next to Syria in addition to unstable goverment and internal rifts brought

Iraq back into the headlines, showing the country once again, even less

desirable place to visit or even in which to do business. In consequence,

tourism declined overall in 2013 in spite of the strong growth in the

Kurdistan area. There was business in cities such as Basra and Baghdad,

mostly to Sulamaniyah and Erbil. (Country Report 2014.)

Also the economic crisis in Iran got worse and peaked in summer of 2012

as the currency was dramatically devalued, having a negative impact on

the purchasing power of Iranians, which affected Iranian’s travelling

abroad. Due to this, religious tourism was most impacted by the declining

number of Iranians leisure tourism from Iran to some parts of Kurdistan

also suffered. If recent changes in Iranian foreign policy bring much-

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needed changes to the country tourism in Iraq was expected to recover

from 2014. (Country Report 2014.)

The Middle East as a tourism area has always been volatile and therefore

very challenging to do business in.

An extremist Islamist rebel group called Islamic State of Iraq and the

Levant (ISIL or known better as ISIS) is confusing things in Iraq. The

group started to take over areas in Iraq from 2013 (BBC 2014). Ministries

of Foreign Affairs from the Western countries have been against their

citizens traveling to Iraq, including the Kurdistan region, since the summer

of 2014 (Foreign travel advice: Iraq 2015). Right now, news around the

world is showing videos of the Islamist rebel group ISIS destroying

valuable cultural heritage, which are important attraction factors.

According to the media, the group has destroyed among others, the burial

place of the prophet Jonah in Mosul, parts of the ruins of Nineveh, ancient

Hatra and many other shrines and churches (Koskinen 2015). The United

Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization UNESCO calls

for an emergency meeting on Iraq’s cultural heritage, which are derived

from up to 800 century BC, due to the destruction. (Länkinen 2015.)

2.3 The Kurdistan region

Kurdistan rests along a series of mountain ranges and encompasses a

significant portion of what has traditionally been called “The land between

the rivers” and “The birth place of civilization”. Country to well over one

thousand known archeological sites, the region’s top historic attractions

are the Erbil citadel, which is in appendix 4 and Shanidar cave. The Erbil

citadel is recognized as the world’s oldest continually inhabited city.

(Kurdistan Tour Guide 2015, 30–31.)

The Kurdistan region has always been known from its safety and security

because of its relative political stability and the regions separation from the

rest of Iraq. The Arab Tourism Committee chose Erbil the capital city of

Kurdistan, as Arab Tourism Capital for 2014. More than 40 major events

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throughout the year in Erbil made this nomination possible. Also the

influential National Geographic publication classified Erbil as one of the

top twenty destinations in the world to visit in 2014. (National Geographic

2014.)

Large number of infrastructure improvements, for example, airport, road

and travel accommodation investments are planned in the Kurdistan

region, more specifically in Erbil. (Country Report 2014.)

The growth of travel accommodation infrastructure has been huge as

cities as Erbil are undersupplied to meet the rapid growth in the number of

domestic and international tourists. Most of new hotels are 4- 5 star hotels

equipped with business facilities and offering numerous services. The first

5 star hotel brand in Erbil was The Rotana brand offering a variety of

services. Since then many international brands have targeted Kurdistan,

including the Hilton, Sheraton, Marriot and many others. With more than

600 hotels and occupancy exceeding 70%, Kurdistan has a very attractive

market (Rotana Hotel 2015). Tourism in Erbil has been viewed as an

alternative approach in economic and environmental development as well

as in the social and cultural aspects. On the top of Dubai, Beirut, Oman,

and many others, Erbil had become the best in tourism rapid development.

(Country Report 2014.)

The opening up of Kurdistan has created new opportunities for niche

tourism, for example adventure tourism, which is possible with diversity of

nature across of the region. The region attracts, for example, backpackers

with diversity as well as with the charm of novelty. Some operators have

begun taking on the challenge, but large parts are still untapped so it

offers great potential to newcomers. Business travel packages to

Kurdistan targeting MICE tourists (meetings, incentives, conferencing,

exhibitions) are expected to be increasingly popular. (Country Report

2014.)

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3 TOURISM DESTINATION DEVELOPMENT

In this chapter we are going to see what tourism destination development

is. I am going to present two different kinds of models, which measure the

development of a tourism destination. Later in this thesis, development of

Erbil will be compared to these models and theory in general.

This thesis focuses on the development of a tourism destination so before

telling more about it, it is important to make clear the definitions of

development itself, tourism destination and what development of a tourism

destination means. In subsections I go through important steps of tourism

destination development: destination planning, identity and evolution.

New tourism destinations are born around the world all the time.

Destinations are born; they grow, change and get to the point when the

development can remain stable, decline or increase. But in tourism

development there are always two sides of a coin. It can offer jobs and

increase revenues but on the other hand the benefits are not always

equally distributed. This does not mean that the destination development

is pointless but tells that it must be built correctly so the area will be able to

benefit from the development.

A tourism destination is basically a geographic area, which attracts

visitors; it can be an individual country or a city. Usually a tourism

destination has different types of accommodation and other facilities

suchas restaurants. Visitors can also be day visitors, when

accommodation is not needed. Tourism destination can be also identified

from its marketing efforts and local tourism stakeholders. (Morrison 2013,

4.)

Tourism destinations have got the attention of tourism researchers for a

long time and there is plenty of research on this topic. The ones I am

going to focus on in my study are the models of Prideaux (2000) and

Butler (1980) (Prideaux 2009, 33). I am interested in testing these models

and comparing these to my case, the city of Erbil. One of the best known

is Butler’s model because he extended the concept by combining

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development theory with the theory of the product life cycle to make a

model, which shows the destination life cycle. Butler’s tourism area life

cycle (TALC) model has also been widely tested in the literature.

3.1 Destination planning

Visitors do need something to see and something to keep them occupied

when they are in a destination. They need a place, which is different from

their home, why travel otherwise? Destination planning is all about

creating this place: building on the unique geography, history and cultural

traditions. Destination planning is about setting goals and objectives,

understanding trends and the present situation in a market, identifing

options, recognizing constraints and recommending action. When the

planning is done well, development will be better in projects and will create

excellent tourism service. Destination planning and management are keys

for a long- term sustainability of tourism and must be remembered at every

level. (Godfrey & Clarke 2000.)

Community has in an important role in a destination. They are responsible

for example for transportation, catering, accommondation, information and

all the other services in a destination. It is the community’s culture,

environment, people and history, which tourists come to see. When

working with a destination planning and management is important to

remember the community. Where there is tourism development, it can

make a change in the way we use resources to serve the tourist market.

For example, an old shop in a bazar can be changed into a traditional

teahouse, which can be really exotic for a tourist. The facility may still

exist, but the original function has been replaced by something new.

Tourism destination planning is about managing this kind of change in a

way that brings the best benefit to the community with minimal cost. Good

planning takes care that the local community accepts the possible

changes. It is responsible for understanding and appreciating the impact

tourism can have on local life, nature and cultural resources. (Godfrey &

Clarke 2000, 2–4.)

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Every destination also needs to have a long- term tourism plan, which is a

shared strategy for all stakeholders to follow for the future. A tourism plan

or a tourism master plan is a long-term plan for 10 years or more. Other

plans are called tourism strategy, which is a medium- term plan for 5-9

years and tourism action plan, which is a short-term plan for 2-4 years.

Tourism planning has many obvious benefits; just a few are seen from

Figure 2. (Morrison 2013, 11.)

Figure 3. Benefits of preparing long- term plans for tourism. (Morrison

2013, 11.)

3.2 Destination identity

The most successful tourism destinations are the ones, which do have

something unique: they have a sense of place and an identity, which is

different from its competitors. It is easy to do benchmarking and take

inspiration from similar destinations, which are successful destination

Benefits  of  tourism  planning  

Clear  future  direc5ons,  visions  and  

goals  

Greater  a9en5on  for  tourism  

Iden5fica5on  of  

opportuni5es  

Shared  plan  ownership  

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should always focus on its identity and unique factors. The problem is

there are never two destinations exactly the same not in terms of what

they can offer or whom they attract. Even if destinations are very similar to

each other, it does not mean equal success in the tourism business.

Destinations should not focus on the similarities but on differences. From

differences they can find their way to success. (Godfrey & Clarke 2000, 7.)

Destination is usually the unit of action where companies, service

providers, organizations, locals and visitors, interact through the co-

creation of experiences. And tourism is always more than a product, it’s an

experience. When marketing or promoting a destination, the nature of the

tourism destination must be understood. Tourism destinations have

promoted themselves throughout the history of attracting visitors in

different ways. Some destinations have become extremely popular and

others have remained less familiar despite the time and money spent on

their marketing. Destination branding has become very popular through

the assumption that destination images are the main influence over

customer choice for a destination. Many tourism destinations around the

world have launched branding campaigns to differentiate themselves from

their competitors and to attract more tourists. (Saraniemi 2009, 26.)

So where to start? How we can attract tourists? It is important to build an

identity or an image for a destination. This usually needs activities from a

destination-marketing organisation to improve positive images of the

destination. These activities mean for example marketing programs,

marketing communications, strategies and positioning. The aim for the

promotional activities should deliver a projected and desired image of the

destination. Stabler (1988) did divide the factors for the destination image

formation model into demand and supply factors. This division of

destination image led to two focuses; a focus on supply- side aspects, like

marketing operations and a focus on demand- side aspects, like tourist

decision- making. Saraniemi illustrates in figure 3, the supply- side and

demand- side image concepts in a simplified form to demonstrate the main

concepts on both sides. Demand- side can be tourists, potential tourists or

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anyone who is receiving information about the destination. (Saraniemi

2009, 28.)

Figure 4. Two- folded image concept. (Saraniemi 2009, 28.)

One answer is to do a tourism resource audit. The tourism resource audit

includes a thorough assessment of a destination’s tourism supply; those

factors which can attract tourists to the destination. This audit involves the

analysis of what tourists come to do and see (activities and attractions),

how they travel (accessability and infrastructure), how they are served

(service and hospitality) and how they are informed (information). Tourism

destination audits are designed to help destination communities identify

what is special of them, but they also help to point out the factors, which

can be missing, or need to be improvement. How to do it? First we need to

collect a list about all resources, which have some connection with

tourism. Second, a critical evaluation of those resources is needed. The

resources need to evaluate in terms of their uniqueness and tourist

appeal, quality and preliminary identification of those, which need

improving. Appendix 5. (Godfrey & Clarke 2000, 7.)

Supply-

side:

Destination

Image

building

Desired

image Image capital

Projected image

Demand- side

Receivers

Image formation

Perceived

image

Organic image

Induced image

Image creation

17

3.3 Evolution of development

Destination models can be divided into ones which are relying on

graphical or diagrammatic representations, and ones employing

mathematical equations. Mathematical equations are mostly used to

forecast tourism demand. Tourism models, which are used to to explain

destination development can be classified into three different groups such

as geographical, economic and management and marketing models.

Geographical models, which are using an element of spatial relationships

and time, are the largest group to explain destination development.

Economic and management and marketing models have had less

attention. (Prideaux 2009, 29.)

I am only going to focus on the models, which are widely tested because

there are many factors on these developed models that we must take into

account before we can apply the models in practice.

Prideaux (2009) puts together the main destination development criteria,

which can be also used to compare and evaluate competing destinations.

If one of these criteria is missing or cannot be supported we can expect

that growth will stop or will require significant efforts by the authors. There

are four main themes which all do include important key criterias.

(Prideaux 2009, 42.)

The first theme would be factors in a destination. This includes the main

tourist attractions in a destination usually including both natural and built

attractions. The natural resources are important in many ways. It is also

important to know the carrying capacity and sustainability expressed as

land available for development, availability of natural resources to absorb

visitor flows without sustaining damage, availability of resources such as

water, environmental factors and political factors. Destination should also

have avaibility to attract new investments and have good distances

between other destinations and major generating regions. (Prideaux 2009,

42.)

18

The second priority is marketing. Destination need to be available to be an

effective and representative, and marketing is needed to implement with

right channels of distribution. (Prideaux 2009, 42.)

The third is support. Support given by local authorities and residents. And

volume of support given by regional, state and national goverments for

tourism development. Support also means investments like investment in

new transport infrastructure. (Prideaux 2009, 42.)

The fourth theme includes external factors such as impact of competing

destinations, changes in the national and international economies, ability

to adapt to climate change and to potential threats. Climate change threats

are, for example, increasing sea levels, changing weather and erosion.

Other threats are natural forces and conflicts like earthquakes and wars.

(Prideaux 2009, 42.)

Butler’s model TALC (tourism area life cycle) in figure 5 is based on the

product life cycle theory, which assumes that products develop through a

series of stages following an S- shaped figure of introduction, growth,

maturity and decline. Butler noted that in a product life cycle the sales of a

product grew slowly, experienced a rapid growth, stabilizes and finally

subsequently decreased. With destination life cycle it gives a similar story

by starting with the discovery of the destination and the deficiencies in it

(Prideaux 2009, 32–33). As facilities are provided and awareness grows,

visitor numbers will increase. By marketing and dissemination of

information the area’s popularity will grow rapidly. Butler (2006) explains

that eventually, however, the attractiveness of the area will decline due to

overuse and the impact of visitors, which can also lead to the decline in

visitor numbers. (Butler 2006, 4– 5.)

19

Figure 5. Tourism lifecycle. (Butler 2006, 5.)

TALC has seven stages of tourism development, which form the shape of

the development curve. The development starts with exploration by

adventurous visitors, in small numbers initially, who discover the

destination. They will find that the destination is unspoilt with the

weaknesses of access, facilities, and local knowledge. Next step is

involvement when local people of the destination start to provide some

facilities for tourists: recognized tourist season will appear. The

development forms when the destination starts to develop and advertise

the area. Prideaux adds (2009) the growth is also dependent on

accessibility, the attitude of locals, resource availability, competitors,

political will and the attractiveness for visitors (Prideaux 2009, 33). Due to

this processes the area becomes recognized as a tourism destination.

When the area continues to attract visitors development will consolidate.

In this point, some tensions can develop between the destination and

tourists. Stagnation follows the consolidation: the numbers of tourists may

decline because the facilities have become old and run down. In the end,

the destination has three options. The development may rejuvenate if

20

number of visitors start to increase due to possible investments and

modernization. The development can also remain stable or if the resort is

not rejuvenated, decline may follow. People are losing their jobs related to

tourism and the image of the destination will suffer. (Butler 2006, 5–8.)

21

4 METHODOLOGY

Methodology will be described in this chapter before discussing the results

of the interviews. I will present my methodological choices and tell how I

used them in Erbil. Also basic facts about Kurdistan are needed because

Kurdistan might be an unknown destination to the reader. In the end, I will

explain how I analyze the answers in the interviews so the reader could

have examples how to do it.

The empirical part of this thesis consists of nine qualitative interviews with

local tourism companies and entrepreneurs in Erbil. These reveal many

interesting thoughts, ideas and projects, from which we can deduce the

direction of development and to get new ideas how to develop. Traveling

to the destination and observing my surroundings and the changes in it

helped me to internalize how much progress there has been. My first visit

in Erbil was five years ago so the observation then and now gave a good

base to start to research the development.

Research methods for this thesis consist of qualitative interviews, personal

observations, academic research and other studies. When I told them

what I was aiming for and when we talked about tourism in an area, locals

were pleased that my study was about Kurdistan and the fact that I was

interested developing tourism in this area.

Qualitative research is substantially different than quantitative. Qualitative

interviews are indepth and intensive rather than numerical as in

quantitative research. The aim is to acquire subjective understanding of

social reality, not statistical descriptions or overall generalizable

predictions (Hirsjärvi, Remes & Sajavaara 2008, 156–157). The answers

in qualitative interviews are often viewed as a whole, rather than

comparing each answer with another one, although that is possible too

(Hirsjärvi 2008, 158). In qualitative research conclusions cannot be made

based on statistical probabilities because usually there are not enough

interviews conducted to make the differences statistically significant

(Alasuutari 1994, 28–29). That is not the idea in qualitative research; the

22

point is to get more thorough and detailed information from a lesser

number of people. Qualitative interviews are based on finding differences

and, particularly in this case, similarities between interviewees and their

answers and then simplifying these answers to be comparable with each

other and with existing theories and frameworks (Alasuutari 1994, 34).

After I had decided how to implement my research, I began to find out

what my interview will consist of. To understand how Erbil has become

what it is today and what the possibilities are we have to know what has

happened in the history, today and what the future looks like. So the most

obvious way was to build the framework from these three elements: the

past, present and future. I started with the literature part on January 2015

and on February I approached my commissioner and after that I sent

requests for the interviews. On tenth of March I travelled to Erbil and on

the next day I met my commissioner and I had my first interview with them.

4.1 Thematic interview

The qualitative interviews in this thesis were semi- structured thematic

interviews. For semi- structured thematic interviews, thematic areas are

pre- defined, but their order and extent vary according to the interviewees

(Aaltola, J. & Valli, R. 2007, 25). There were three clear themes: the past,

present and future. But interviews became more semi- structured

interviews than thematic because of variety in the interviewee’s answers.

There are no answer options; the interviewee answers the interviews in his

own words. The interviewer knew the subject and type of the questions,

but the interviews vary depending on the interviewee, when it is closer to a

conversation than a formal interview. This also reduces tension in an

interview situation and helps the interviewee to relax. The interview

questions are shown in appendix 6.

The interviewees can be divided into two groups: the purposefully selected

and the ones who came along coincidentally. The purposefully selected

were of course my commissioner, Erbil International Airport, Rotana hotel

and two entrepreneurs. The other three were selected on the spot in Erbil.

23

These three I found after I could not contact a couple companies I

originally planned to interview first. The interviews were conducted during

March and April 2015 in the city of Erbil.

4.2 Case of Erbil

Erbil the capital city of the Kurdistan region in Iraq was selected to be the

case in this thesis because of the huge development of the city that I have

witnessed with my own eyes during the last five years. Also Erbil was

selected as a Capital of tourism in the Middle East for 2014 and the

influential National Geographic publication classified Erbil 21- best tourist

destinations “Best trips in 2014” (Visit Erbil 2014) (National Geographic

2014). These nominations started my interest in Erbil’s tourism situation.

First, it is useful to write about the Kurdistan before going to Erbil and

explain what this region is all about.

24

Figure 6. Map of Kurdistan, Erbil’s municipality in pink in the middle of the

map. (Kurdistan Tour guide 2015)

Iraq is one of the earliest civilizations as well as the birthplace of western

culture. At the beginning of the 1900’s the country was inhabited by a

majority of the kurds in the north, who are Sunni Muslims and in the

central and south parts by Shiite Muslims. From then on, the Kurds have

worked to break away from Iraq. In 1979, a man named Saddam Hussein

rose to the leadership of the Iraqi citizen department. Kurds were opposed

to the new government and Saddam decided to violently suppress the

protesters. Part of northern Iraq was declared a prohibited area and the

Kurds who remained there were systematically removed. A large part of

the young men were executed. By 1988, an estimated 4000 villages and

large nature areas were destroyed, 180 000 people were killed and 1.5

million banned. It was only when the United States intervened and

captured Saddam Hussein in 2003, inter alia, on charges of war crimes

and crimes against humanity, that Kurds were able to start a new life while

the war between the United States and rest of the Iraq continued

(Kurdistan Tour Guide. 2015, 38–41). During the Iraq war 2003- 2010 the

Kurdistan region in North Iraq was always known as a peaceful area and

American soldiers were able to take a vacation from the war in Kurdistan.

Soldiers did appreciate the hospitality of Kurds and were known to move

around for example without weapons. The soldiers were also using a lot of

restaurant and accommodation services. The American soldiers even

today return to Kurdistan with their families to show them where they have

been. (Travel company entrepreneur 2015.)

During the war the region remained very calm and the region’s

administration was working effectively. As a result, Kurdistan has become

an attractive area for foreign investors. Also construction of new housing is

strong and the political stability of the area attracts the wealthy Arab

population to move into the area. (Kurdistan Tour Guide 2015, 48.)

25

4.3 Gathering data in Kurdistan

Before travelling to Erbil I decided whom I wanted to interview and I knew

immediately who they were. They were persons from my commissioning

party and then other leaders from the tourism business in the region: Erbil

International Airport and the first five star hotel. Also for me it was

important to interview local tourism entrepreneurs. Interviews were set

with one tourism entrepreneur who I knew already and the owner of one of

the largest local newspapers. Agreed interviews were set through e- mails,

but precise time and places were confirmed in Erbil.

I travelled to Erbil on tenth of March 2015 and I was going to spend one

month in Kurdistan. My plan was to have one interview per day and have

two to three interviews per week. But because of the interviewees

schedules none of this happened. I had one interview during the first

week, five on the third week and one on the last week. Two of the

interviewees did not have all the information I needed, so they got back to

me and answered via e- mail.

Different from the Finnish way, the interviews were set usually a day or

even a couple hours before, one interview was even held by chance. In

Erbil my local friend made the phone calls to set the interviews and always

told who I was and what for I was using the interviews for. Usually the

information went through many persons before it reached the interviewee,

so many times I explained to the interviewee who I was and what exact I

was doing there.

On the day after my arrival in Erbil I met my commissioner and I had my

first interview. Another interview from my commissioner was done by e-

mail, which answers I received when I was back in Finland. During my first

interview with my commissioner, I learned several things. Smalltalk about

my history in Kurdistan was an important icebreaker before starting the

interview. Many times the interview started itself due to the smalltalk when

the interview became more like a conversation. It was important to notify

the interviewee when I started to record our conversation. Before starting

26

the interview it was really important to check how much time the

interviewee had for the interview. Each interview lasted from 20 to 60

minutes depending on the length of the answers and time schedule of the

interviewees. If the interviewee did not have enough time I had marked the

most important questions, which I went through first. After that I asked the

rest of the questions, if we still had time.

I had a checklist for remembering to ask all the information before the

interview. Each I asked three questions related to the interviewee’s

anonymity; if I was allowed record the conversation? Was I allowed to use

the name of the interviewee? And was I allowed to use the name of the

company? My interviewees gave permission to every point. I also wanted

to finish the interview with more relaxed question; usually the atmosphere

of the interview was quite dark due to the ongoing war while we were

talking about future of Kurdistan. The last question was a bit more

personal when I asked about the interviewee’s dream for Erbil and

Kurdistan.This was the point when the interviewee at latest got a smile on

his face. And all of the interviewees had the same answer to this question.

The interviews were held in English and Kurdish, one of them in Finnish.

When the interview was in Kurdish, due to my inadequate Kurdish

language, there was always a person translating who always came with

the interviewee. When I set my interviews I always checked the language

of the interview and the possibility to have a translator. Just in case, I

always had my local friend with me if there was no translator.

There were plenty of companies who sold plane tickets but only a few who

sold tours or tourist activities. I tried to contact the two largest such

companies in the region, without answer. Instead I had a chance to

interview the manager of the most famous sight, Citadel, owner and

founder of the Kurdish textile museum in Citadel and a famous Kurdish

fashion designer.

Most of the interviews were done at the interviewee’s workplaces and a

couple of interviews were held in a comfortable lobby bar of a hotel.

27

Lobbybar was very clear option for interviews because it was known as a

meeting point in the center of town. Sometimes during the transcription I

noticed that loud talking on the backround hampered the transcription

I always took care that I transcribed my recordings right after the

interviews, when everything was still fresh in my mind. When I transcribed

my first interviews I transcribed the whole conversation. After a few

transcriptions I started to transcribe longer interviews and I understood

that it would take too much time to write everything down. Fortunately I

understood this when I started to transcribe my longest interviews and I

only wrote down the most important points of the conversation. The other

interviews I transcribed before made me understand what kind of

information is the most important to find.

My goal for the interviews was to get information about the tourism

situation in Erbil. I got facts, like numbers of the companies, which

cooperated with KRG (Kurdistan Regional Government) and other

interviewees like entrepreneurs also shared some facts but also were

more emotional with their answers. I had a bit different questions for the

ministry, the airport and for the entrepreneurs. From the ministry, which

was my commissioner, I needed facts for example: How they organize

tourism development and marketing? Is there cooperation? What are the

strategies? And so on. From the airport I needed facts also: How many

visitors? From where are the visitors coming? I had the same framework

of the questions for everyone but I needed to modify the questions to fit

the interviewees to get the needed information. The questions depended

on the interviewee. Sometimes I followed the framework and sometimes I

forgot some questions to get more details about a specific theme. In

addition to the facts, I was also interested to hear ideas, plans and dreams

of the interviewees to make it more personal.

4.4 Analysis

Analysing the answers was probably the hardest part of the work.

Analysing the answers required examination of the contents of the

28

answers, which required concentration to find the needed information.

When I started this part of the work my working stopped. Dealing with nine

long interviews became difficult. Finally I put all the interviews next to each

other and I started to find similarities and important points from the

answers. First I started to use colour codes where I used different colours

to combine the same answers. But this technic didn’t work for me. I

needed to see all the answers next to each other and see which ones

recurred most. I only used the colour code to point out the most valuable

information.

I divided the content by themes and combined all the nine answers from

the interviewees theme by theme, appendix 7. ”The biggest factors/

strengths” illustrates that what have been the biggest factors in the past

and today, because the answers for both are the same. ”Biggest factors

needed for development,” tells those factors which are needed for the

future. Also ”weaknesses” shows the factors, which should be improved. I

separate the answers from the questions to find the most important

information that the interviewee wanted to share. With the gate tally I

calculate the number of every answer to see which ones repeated most.

These answers I assumed to be the most important. In my opinion, every

answer was just as important as the other but I needed to give more

attention to the answers of the ministry, Rotana Hotel and the airport

because their answers were based on facts.

29

5 RESULTS

In this chapter I introduce all the ten interviews I conducted. To find out the

main questions; how tourism destination is developed and which are the

main factors for the development in a future? I built the results in the same

framework as I did with the questions:

• past

• present

• future

To understand which factors have contributed to the situation where Erbil

is today and where it is going, it is important to work with these themes.

After analyzing the data I will reflect the case of Erbil to the theory.

5.1 Past

Three reasons, which were more remarkable why visitors started to travel

to Erbil in the first place, were:

• oil and gas

• nature & safety

• archeology & history

All of the interviewees agreed about how Erbil started to develop in the

first place. Significant quantities of oil and gas in Kurdistan attracted

business to the capital city Erbil. Due to the new big amount of

international people in the region new accommodation and other services

were needed. Due to the safety and stability of the region, Kurdistan has

always been known as a peaceful resort within the rest of Iraq and other

Arab countries. This plus the beautiful rare nature with mountains, snow

and lakes have always attracted people from neighboring countries for a

vacation. Lolan Sipan, owner and founder of the Kurdish textile museum,

also reminds us of the archeologists and orientalists who came to the area

already at the beginning of the 20th century and maybe before. They were

30

mostly from the UK and were already aware of the rich archaeological

potential in an area.

Local travel company entrepreneur, Rekar Argoshy, remembers the time

when the international oil companies started to arrive in the city, and the

government started to build new roads and clean the streets. Local rich

people noticed the boom in foreigners coming to the city and started to do

business for example by opening local companies. The establishment of

one’s own company has been made easy and without taxes it is really

attractive to do business in the region. Neighbouring countries with high

taxes more likely prefer to start a business in Kurdistan. During the big

“boom” the government started to market Erbil as a new booming oil city

through the media in Arab countries. Also big events and concerts were

held in Erbil, which were also advertised in neighbouring countries.

The Board mentions three major factors, which have affected most of the

growth of tourism and factors that tourism industry is dependent on:

1. Safety and security in the region 2. A good budget provided by Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) 3. A successful strategic tourism master plan

The liberation of Iraq in 2003 started to grow business, which led to a

growing economy. Due to this, The Kurdistan Regional Government

(KRG) decided to transform Erbil’s former military base into a modern civil

aviation airport and Erbil International airport officially opened in 2005.

After 2007 the number of tourist increased, because the time of Saddam

Hussein had ended. The government was changed and Kurdistan started

to develope their region. Dara Al- Yaqoobi, manager of the Citadel, tells

that also UNESCO came to the city of Erbil in 2007 and they added

Citadel to their heritage list, which was the first UNESCO’s sight in

Kurdistan. When UNESCO was involved, Citadel became more

impressive and it raised awareness of Erbil again. Also UNESCO offers

invaluable international assistance to renovate the old city, which has

been needed in the region. Citadel is one of the most important key

elements in Erbil because it is the oldest continually inhabited city in the

31

world and that makes Erbil a very impressive destination. Also the old

parts of Erbil are all situated next to the Citadel so they are really easy for

the tourists to find.

In 2010 the new airport was opened because of the volume of the

passengers and to develop the transport and cargo, appendix 8. When the

new EIA (Erbil International Airport) opened it enabled the growth of

tourism, accessibility got better and the number of visitors increased. The

new airport helped to receive a large number of visitors and direct flights

for example from Stockholm. Two months after the opening also the

author travelled to Kurdistan for the first time.

Also an important notice was that when the new airport was opened it also

enabled locals to travel more, which helped the locals to adapt to the

tourism business. When the locals travel, they see how the tourism

business works in other countries and it makes them understand that they

can also make a profit from tourism in Kurdistan.

“Local people have started to travel to destinations like Turkey

and Lebanon, and they have seen what tourism does in these

destinations so when they come back they want to make a

difference also in here.”- Local newspaper entrepreneur

The Rotana Hotel chain noticed the new booming city and started

cooperation with Lebanese based Malia Company, which already, with

many other Lebanese companies, was increasing their business in the

region. Rotana was the first five star hotel in the region and right after the

opening other international companies for example Divan appendix 9,

Grand Swiss appendix 10, Sheraton and others started to show their

interest in Erbil.

Kurdistan’s prime minister announced that Erbil will be the next Dubai,

because there is no difference between these two cities.

Local travel company entrepreneur, Rekar Argoshy, explained how

tourism was growing in 2012 when he opened his tourism company. When

the new airport was opened the demand for flights started to grow little by

32

little. Locals didn’t know how to book flights and travels so they needed

this kind of service. Also there is no credit card service in Kurdistan so it

made the travel booking very difficult. Erbil grew, new businesses came,

airports were opened across Kurdistan and suddenly the demand for

travel grew exponentially. The economy grew and people had more

money to travel than ever. A travel company was a good business and the

number of this kind of companies grew greatly.

“Tourism grew exponentially. Flights were full, hotel’s occupancy was

100%, and people came to Kurdistan from all around the world.

Major festivals and celebrations (such as Newroz), brought millions

of visitors. Accommodations were so full that people were sleeping

outdoors. But then ISIS came.”- Local travel company entrepreneur

5.2 Present

When Erbil was chosen as a Tourism Capital of Middle East 2014 by the

Arab Tourism Committee, the goverment created a huge event to promote

the award widely. And it was deserved but many facilities are still missing

and there is much to do before Erbil can reach international tourism.

Tourism is planned to be its biggest industry right after oil, or even bigger.

Kurdistan’s General Board of Tourism supports tourism education and

they say that there are already existing three tourism institutions, which

will be improved. There are also training centers for those who are working

in the tourism sector to improve their skills. These trainings are for private

and public sectors. Kurdistan’s regional government gave three million

dollars for tourism marketing in 2013.

The main attraction, the Citadel in Erbil is now only open partially because

it is under renovation and is not save enough for visitors. In this moment

the Citadel arranges special visits with their staff but they won’t be still

allowed to enter buildings. This situation is understandable but is also

harmful for the textile museum, which is inside of the Citadel.The museum

will be empty as long as the visitors can’t enter to area of the Citadel.

33

Infrastructure became the main weakness with facilities in the answers.

Still infrastructure is getting better and construction is shown the most in

Erbil’s cityscape appendix 11. Interviewees say that at least the

infrastructure is better than in the rest of Iraq. One of the general concerns

in the answers was specifically the new construction.

“People come to Kurdistan and Erbil because of its history

and the culture. They come to look for the Middle East culture

so it’s a pitty that a lot of the old is destroyed. The old need to

be saved, the old is the heart and reason why tourists would

come to Erbil. Western people have seen the modern

infrastructure and when they come to the Middle East they

want to see the Middle East.”- Local designer

However in the same breath she says:

“Erbil needs the development, it needs the infrastructure and

hotels and so on, for the development. When the economy

grows that means that there can be tourism.”- Local designer

I assume that this matter is also taken into account. When the old bazar

next to the Citadel was renovated it actually was made to appear old again

appendix 12. Also the buildings in the Citadel are made to appear in a way

the buildings were built in the first place (Manager of the Citadel 2015).

Appendix 13 is a building in the Citadel in 2010 and appendix 14 is the

same building in 2013.

Lolan Sipan, the founder and owner of the Kurdish textile museum

believes in deeper reasons:

“Kurds are going through an identity crisis now, trying to forget

the past. They are trying to westernize and modernize as

soon as possible. This is the problem; you can see this in new

infrastructure. Modern is welcome but we have to preserve

our culture and heritage.”- Owner of the museum

34

“Kurdistan has so much more than other Middle Eastern

countries but for example, in Dubai, they have succeeded in

organizing tourism. They know how to build the new and

preserve the old. In here we have such beautiful sights and

Dubai started from nothing.”- Owner of the museum

The government has supported the tourism sector from the beginning.

When the big hotel chains came to Erbil the government supported them.

They gave a good spot for the hotel and helped in the building. Also the

government supports and makes it really easy to open a tourism company.

The local travel company entrepreneur reports that after he opened his

business, similar companies were opened across the city next to each

other. Kurdistan’s General Board of Tourism made a new law for this kind

of companies because there started to be plenty of them. If a tourism

company wanted to renew their license they had to implement the new

law. If a company was having plenty of tourist groups for example from

South Iraq the company needed to have the same amount tourists also

from outside of the country. This would have increased the number of

international tourists in Kurdistan. But after an extremist Islamist rebel

group called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or known better as

ISIS) attacked this law was put on hold.

EIA (Erbil International Airport) shows statistics of the visitors in the region.

Most of the passengers come from the Arab countries for example

Lebanon, Jordan Egypt and the Emirates. The biggest amount of visitors

come from the rest of Iraq but there is no numbers for people moving

inside of the country. There are also visitors from Germany, Sweden,

Holland, Belgium, Iran, Indonesia and Bangladesh. In general these from

this visitors come to work in Erbil and not as as tourists.

The number of tourists has grown 30% yearly. The Erbil International

Airport statistics show soaring growth in the number of visitors during the

last seven years.

Table 1. Number of visitors in Erbil from 2007 to 2013. (Erbil International

35

Airport 2015.)

In 2007 153 571

In 2008 211 780

In 2009 426 398

In 2010 675 479

In 2011 1 165 174

In 2012 1 518 830

In 2013 2 029 623

An extremist Islamist rebel group called ISIS attacked Iraq and Kurdistan

right after the Erbil’s nomination.

When ISIS came, it changed everything. The board explains that all the

money has gone to the war because a safety and security come first. And

of course no one wants to travel to a war zone. Because of the war the

government cut their budget, which is understandable but a huge problem.

In 2013 there was a tourism loan for the entrepeneurs who wanted to work

in the tourism sector, for example opening a hotel, tour office and so on.

But in 2014 there was no loan because of cutting the budget. Also the

number of refugees in an area right now is a problem because some of the

refugees are living in hotels and motels. One of the goverments biggest

problems now is that how they can help refugees. The war and the

refugees are now the main issues for the government, not the tourism.

The war also affects the movement of people. Most of the visitors in

Kurdistan are from the rest of Iraq and this is where the war exists. ISIS

has also cut off the main roads for example the road from Bagdad to Erbil.

36

Sometimes even the airport needs to be closed because it is used for

military vehicles.

For now, construction has stopped and more than 200 hotels are closed

and tourist companies are also closing their doors:

“We needed to close our company. A company that used to be one

of the best businesses was closed because we didn’t make any profit

for months.”- Travel company entrepreneur

5.3 Future

Every interviewee agrees that without ISIS, Erbil would have been the next

Dubai for now.

Kurdistan’s General Board of Tourism is very committed to developing and

expanding the tourism sector in spite of the situation. One of the master

plan’s biggest strategy is for Kurdistan to be as big tourism destination as

other international destinations are by 2025. The Board knows that people

don’t know Kurdistan and making Kurdistan known internationally is a big

part of the Master plan.

In 2013 Kurdistan had 3 million tourists and the board wants to increase

this number to 7 million by 2025. They also tell that giving support to the

private sector and developing the skills of those who are working in the

tourism sector are important goals. The Board has also started to improve

the tourism service to make it better and improve marketing and

advertising internationally. They want to introduce Kurdistan to the rest of

the world through their brand and slogan: Kurdistan, land of history and

nature. The board knows that education of the employees in the tourism

sector is the key to making the service better and professional.

“Kurdistan needs to improve their instructions, tourism

environment and tourism education in every level from

collegues to institutions. For every of this mentioned, has own

manager and yearly plan. As a sample, tourism education,

37

there will be three new tourism schools opened and tourism

departments in different collegues.”- Kurdistan’s General

Board of Tourism

The manager of the Citadel tells that restored the Citadel is ready for new

life and for new uses these new uses will be for cultural and touristical

uses. So for this the Citadel needs to be renovated so it can have a new

life. For this, the Citadel has a short-term plan and a long-term plan for the

next 25 years.

“Our vision for the Citadel is to have a cultural and touristical

sight, where tourists, people, residents of Erbil and Kurdistan

can spend nice time in a historical cultural area.” – Manager of

Citadel

One main factor needed for development was international recognition-

and help.

“Factors needed for development would be international

companies. Not international companies to come here to

work. We need international companies to come here to teach

us. We don’t need anything from outside but we need to be

trained because we are so young. We just got our

international airport and we don’t even have our own country

yet! We are still so new with all this so people need to be

trained and educated for tourism. If people can get jobs in

tourism and we use our people, the money will stay here and

it won’t go to the international companies. And this is really

important, especially for people to understand that they can

make a profit out of this.”- Local designer

“European companies need to come to Kurdistan. In particular

the tourism companies who could give their advice to the

ministries and government to develop our tourism. If we can

get help from outside, Kurdistan’s tourism would grow.

Tourism could get so big that it would be the number one

38

resource in Kurdistan and the second would be the oil. When

people think about Kurdistan they would automatically think

about it from the tourism point of view.”- Owner of the local

newspaper

The main problem and weakness emerged clearly. Every interviewee

mentioned the lack of independence as the most important problem.

“The main problem is that people think of Kurdistan as a part

of Iraq. All they see is war and explosions; they don’t see that

Kurdistan is different destination from the rest of Iraq. Culture,

language, everything is different. And safety and security is in

its on class. “ – Kurdistan’s General Board of Tourism

The board would love to say that Kurdistan is it’s own country but people

will always think of Iraq as one country as long as it is that way. For

example even getting a visa to Iraq is hard so separation from Iraq would

improve tourism in many ways.

The current situation has affected every single business and company in

the region but the board and companies are fighting back:

“We are trying to keep our occupancy at high levels during

this time by having special offers and outlets. Hopefully the

coming exhibitions will bring people back.”- Rotana Hotel

“Big hotels make more hotels.”- Rotana Hotel. After a big boom of

highclass hotels in the region, more international hotels are interested in

starting their business. For now Hilton appendix 15 and Sheraton have

started to build their first hotels in Erbil.

If there is need to find something good about the current situation, it is that

Kurdistan has been noticed in media internationally. Kurdistan has been

shown as a country, which has kept its borders closed from ISIS.

All the interviewees do believe in a bright future, they say that Kurds have

always fought for their existence and even now they wont give up.

39

“Eventhough the situation has been bad, Erbil continues to

live and grow and no matter what, it always rises again.”-

Owner of the local newspaper

“Before ISIS, we were ready. We were ready for international

tourism and ISIS is not only our problem, but is a problem in

the whole Middle East. If I called you right now to come, you

would, because you know you will be safe here but someone

else who has never been here would not. That is why we

need ambassadors like you to tell rest of the people how

beautiful is here.”- Local designer

“We truly believe that Kurdistan has opportunity to be

internationally known because the region has all it needs.”-

Kurdistan’s General Board of Tourism

“Kurdistan is ready. Kurdistan has great potential for future

tourism. People are ready, they are very hospitable. Kurdistan

needs tourism. We don’t know if mass tourism is what we

want but kind of a niche tourism.”- Owner of the museum

“There will be a good future for Kurdistan, better than before,

but it takes time. This war has nothing to do with Kurds but it

was brought here.”- Local travel company entrepreneur

5.4 Reflection on theory

It is important that when the tourism grows in Erbil the development will

grow correctly. External help is needed but it should be built in a way that

the region will benefit from the development.

“If people can get jobs due to tourism and we use our people

the money will stay here and it won’t go to the international

companies. And this is really important, especially for people

to understand that they can make a profit out of this.”- Local

designer

40

Erbil definitely has a unique geography, history and cultural traditions and

Erbil has been marketed from these points of view. The Government has

succeeded in destination planning so far but the destination is very young

and they need to continue with their work. The community and the

residents of Erbil must be taken account when planning its tourism. The

government needs to take care that the local community accepts the

possible changes.

Godfrey & Clarke (2000) say that every destination also needs to have a

long-term tourism plan, which is a shared strategy for all stakeholders to

follow for the future. A tourism plan or a tourism master plan is a long-term

plan for 10 years or more (Godfrey & Clarke 2000). Kurdistan’s General

Board of Tourism has commissioned international consultants in this

endeavor to produce a strategic tourism master plan that will guide the

development of the tourism till 2025. One of the main strategies of the

master plan is for Kurdistan to be as big a tourism destination as other

international destinations are by 2025. (Kurdistan’s General Board of

Tourism 2015.)

Godfrey & Clarke (2000) also remind us about working for the identity of

the destination and not focus on similarities with other destinations but on

differences (Godfrey & Clarke 2000). Erbil is getting its inspiration from

Dubai, because they are quite similar with their rapid development and

they have similar resources. Having inspiration from Dubai helps with the

destination planning in Erbil and preference for Erbil the city has much

more natural resources than Dubai had. Kurdistan’s General Board of

Tourism has started to market Kurdistan with a brand: Kurdistan land of

history and nature appendix 16. With a brand, a destination is exported to

the world.

Prideaux (2009) put together the main destination criteria and if one of

them is missing or cannot be supported, we can expect that growth will

stop or it will require significant efforts by the authors. There were four

themes for the criterias:

41

• internal factors

• marketing

• support

• external factors (Prideaux 2009.)

When we look at the internal factors in Erbil we can note that there are

plenty of tourist attractions. There are more built attractions inside of the

city and more natural attractions outside. But also Erbil has plenty of

natural and archaeological sites. Other major attractions in Kurdistan,

which are the world’s oldest acheological sites, are in the immediate

vicinity of Erbil. The lands carrying capacity is good; there is open plan

space, which means that land is available for development. Nature is

diverse and water can be found from numerous rivers, which flow from the

mountains and are born from natural water springs. However, Erbil is

placed in dry land area so economical use of water is desirable. Also one

weakness in the answers of the interviews was garbage. Also the author

has noticed this as a problem in the region. Garbage handling is one

major problem that the goverment needs to work on. There is availibility of

different resources and the region is very attractive for new investments.

Also the location of Erbil is in the middle of the Middle East region and

close to other big cities.

Kurdistan’s General Board of Tourism is responsible for the marketing and

they said that there is a project for marketing and media in the amount of 3

million dollars. The project is now in process and it includes 77 activities.

Kurdistan’s General Board of Tourism supports private sectors. Also the

residents of Erbil are ready for tourism.

“Residents of Erbil are ready for international tourism.

Hospitality is the biggest strength that Kurdish people have

because they love people and they adapt easily and really

quickly to the changing environment. Kurdistan is living in a

time of change and people are ready, and will adapt to these

new changes.”- Local designer

42

Government supports the tourism sector and cooperates with for example

the tourism ministry and Erbil’s international airport. The government

supports tourism with its yearly budget, which is cut by half this year

because of the war situation.

”The prime minister has listened to me of my ideas for

developing tourism in the region”- Owner of the local

newspaper

Even though the government supports infrastructure, infrastructure

became the main weakness in the answers in the interviews. There is a

lack of especially in transportation infrastructure.

In external factors, international economies can have an effect because

Kurdistan’s economy is built on oil. The national economy has been stable

compared to its neighbouring countries but is easily affected for example

by the currently on-going war. There are no major climate changes in

Kurdistan. Small earthquakes have been found but those have not

affected tourism. Drought can be a problem in the future because it is

known in the Middle East region (The World Bank 2014). Wars in

neighbouring countries do affect and independence from Iraq would help

to solve this problem.

Erbil has all the main destination criteria by Prideaux but it has some

deficiencies, which the goverment should focus on.

When we compare the development of Erbil to the Butler’s model we start

to measure the development from 2007 to 2014. In 2007 time of Saddam

Hussein ended, government changed and as a result Kurdistan started to

develop their region. For now, we haven’t received numbers from 2015.

(Kurdistan’s General Board of Tourism 2015)

43

Figure 7. Tourism lifecycle of Erbil.

Numbers on the left side of the figure describe Erbil’s visitor numbers and

under the figure are the years when the development has happened. We

can see a small change in the curve in 2010 because of opening of the

new international airport. Due to this, the development started to grow

faster. In 2013, year’s 2014 visitor number was forecasted to be at least

three million (Kurdistan’s General Board of Tourism 2015). In 2014, the

development started a good growth due to the nomination “tourism capital

of Middle East for 2014” but after ISIS attacked in the summer 2014 the

growth of visitor numbers collapsed.

From the figure, we can see how the growing curve suffers an immediate

decline. A sharp decline right after the fast growth is unusual and usually a

crisis, for example, a war or a cataclysm causes a corresponding problem.

Usually after a crisis development has a chance to start to grow again. In

case of a cataclysm, the new start depends on the magnitude of the

damage. In case of a war it also depends on the magnitude of the damage

but also the length of the war. The impact of crisis on the tourism industry

depends on a range of factors including the scale of the event; it’s cost,

44

and funding for recovery, the ability of victims to recover and the length of

the recovery/-rebuilding phase (Prideaux 2009, 116). In the case of Erbil,

there has been no damage from the war yet so the development should

improve quite fast. Butler (1980) explained that due to decline people may

lose their jobs related to tourism and the image of the destination will

suffer (Butler 2006, 5). More than 200 hotels in Erbil have closed for now

and Kurdistan has been seen in a media because of the war. This may

affect the image of Kurdistan later.

45

6 CONCLUSION

My research questions in this study were:

• How has Erbil developed into a tourism destination?

• Which kinds of factors are needed for the development in a

future?

The aim also was to evaluate the potential of Erbil to become a known

tourism destination.

When a destination wants to develop it needs to have a base for

developing. A destination needs tourist attractions, built or natural but

usually both of them. To succeed, the attraction should be different from

its competitors. Destination should focus on its identity and unique factors.

In the case of Erbil, in addition to the several attractions, the region has

plenty of natural resources, which are in this case oil and gas, which affect

economic growth. The economy has a positive impact on tourism.

Then goverments and local authorites support is needed. A budget for

infrastruction for example accommondations and services, and marketing

for tourism is needed. To assist marketing, it is desirable to create a brand

for the destination.

In Erbil the government supported tourism sector for example with a big

budget and marketing. Erbil had plenty of accommondation options and

infrastructure was started due to increasing business in the city. But if Erbil

wants to pursue other forms of tourism, government needs to focus on the

services, which have now been forgotten because the focus has been in

the support and marketing. When Erbil was chosen to be the capital of

tourism in the Middle East in 2014 the government started to promote this

widely. These actions were deserved due to amazing archeological sites

and the booming city of Erbil; but Erbil is still missing facilities.

Myself, I have been in Erbil as a tourist also and the following comments

are born from my own observations in Erbil.

46

Erbil’s new international airport is an important door to the rest of the world

and also an important door to Kurdistan. The airport has an important role

for the visitors arriving in Erbil, because this is the first impression they get

of Erbil. When the visitor wants to continue his trip from the airport there is

no tourist information desk or maps and guides to help the visitor. When

the visitor leaves the airport the only option is to have a local taxi to reach

his destination. If the visitor is not able to speak the local language the

communication can be difficult depending on the linguistic skills of the

driver. The name and the address of a visitor’s destination should be

written to help the communication but even then the bilateral

understanding is not assured. In the accommodation the linguistic skills of

the staff are not assured either. When the visitors want to move and visit

attractions, the only possibility is to use the services of the local taxi again.

The staff of his accommondation may help to order the taxi and inform the

driver of the destination or the visitor need to cope on his own again.

Information in the centre is also in English, which helps moving. Some of

the attractions do have new information boards appendix 17, old boards

appendix 18 or some of them don’t have any appendix 19. For example

the appendix 19 is from Xns caves where native people have lived and

there is not any kind of information about these mystery caves.

Restaurants and other leisure- time services can be also difficult for a

foreign visitor to achieve.

The government has succeeded in the marketing of Erbil but before

international marketing and the possibility to have international tourists,

the government needs to work on services, transportation, education and

information. At this point there is no demand for professional tours and

guides but if these existed maybe the demand could rise?

Also the support of local residents is important and for the community to

understand that they can also make a profit from tourism sector and it can

become an important resource for the region.

47

When the marketing and right distribution channels, local support and

services have been implemented, the destination can start to develop in

international markets.

Erbil has succeeded in all sides of developing tourism and in spite of the

current situation the author and all the interviewees do believe in new

growth in development and possibilities for Erbil to become an

international tourism destination. Rekar Argoshy, the local travel company

entrepreneur, has kept me updated on the situation of Erbil. Im pleased to

hear that international hotel chains like Hilton and Sheraton have

continued the building and other international chains have shown their

interest in Erbil. Also step-by-step, hotels and other tourism companies

have carefully started to open their doors again. I am also happy to

receive the Kurdistan’s first tour guide 2015- 2016 by Kurdistan Iraq tours,

which is a pleasant surprise during this dark period.

6.1 Recommendations

Recommendations are directed at my commissioner, Kurdistan’s General

Board of Tourism. As can be seen from the recent chapter, there are still

some deficiencies to Erbil to develop to be an international destination.

The interviews brought to the surface twelve weaknesses:

• cooperation

• the skills of the tourism employees

• stability

• local’s knowledge

• goverment’s support

• transportation

• garbage

• infrastructure

• facilities/services (information etc.)

• hospitality

• Kurdistan as part of Iraq

48

The main weaknesses, which recurred most, are the ones where my

commissioner should focus on. The main weaknesses were the skills of

tourism employees, infrastructure and facilities and services. Skills of the

tourism employees refer to the number of the people working in the

tourism sector for example as guides. The existing employee’s skills also

need to be improved with knowledge of the sights and with linguistic skills.

More education on tourism sector would be answer to solve this problem.

Together infrastructure and facilities mean more tourism services for

example: different forms of accommonditions, tourist information/guides/

tours and so on. Infrastructure means also the highways, especially the

roads that lead to the sights and old conservation and its renewal.

There was also one weakness that I noticed myself on a daily basis and

that was the garbage. Rekar Argoshy, from Ice Tours, told me that they

have never been taught that they should not litter because the wars have

followed the Kurds throughout their history and they have never thought

about littering. Lolan Sipan the owner of the Kurdish textile museum sees

the problem in a growing city. He says that people knew how to recycle

when they were living in the villages but now in the cities people have a

new kind of garbage and don’t know what to do about it.

“The city is just growing without a plan or vision. Kurdish

people are destroying their own nature.”- Owner of the

museum

I hope that the government will focus on this problem at some point,

because for a foreigner it is really disturbing.

6.2 Research evaluation

Even though the interviewees weren’t implemented as planned, I was very

pleased with my final interviewees and the interviews with them. During

my trip I met interesting persons, which I interviewed unexpectedly and

these interviews became the most remarkable. Fortunately I booked

enough time for my trip to Kurdistan, because the schedules had a habit of

49

changing in several times. Two of the interviews happened via e- mail,

because of the lack of all the information needed and these questions

were double checked to get the right information. I was very strict about

the information I collected to get reliable material. Reliability of the

research means that the research is repeatable regardless of researcher.

It is also important to present the theory behind the conclusion so it will

lead to the same results (Hirsjärvi 2013, 231–233). In the chapter,

“reflection on theory”, I explained the life cycle of Erbil’s development and

I proved the capability of Erbil to be a tourism destination based on theory.

All my interviewees, except one, were authors, policy makers or

entrepreneurs in the tourism sector or supported tourism development with

their business. One entrepreneur did not work in the tourism sector, but

was a local entrepreneur who also worked with Kurdish history and

culture. The professions of my interviewees also ensure reliable data for

my work.

I was worried that I would get a lot of similar answers from the

interviewees because many of them cooperated with the goverment and

Kurds are known to be very patriotic so I expected only positive

perspectives when it comes to their land and that was actually the one

reason why I wanted to have different kind of persons for the interviews. I

was very pleased with the wide variety of the perspectives of the

interviewees but still the same main factors (strengths, weaknesses) did

come up from every interviewee. Every interviewee was happy to work

with me and everyone was pleased that I had chosen Erbil and Kurdistan

as a case for my work.

6.3 Thesis process and self evaluation

I was very passionate about this work and it was close to my heart.

Kurdistan is a very special place for me and this was the main reason why

I chose Erbil and Kurdistan as a case for my work. The starting point was

to tell everyone about Kurdistan, everything else came along during the

planning of the work. The nominations that Erbil earned in 2014 confirmed

50

my thoughts about the subject of the work. Because of my personal

relationship with this case, I knew I would have to stay objective and I

decided in the first place to keep my emotions out of this work and I wish I

had managed to do it.

I started to work on this research in January 2014 and completed it in

November 2015. This was my original schedule but I wanted to

accomplish it already in spring 2015. I started to work on the framework in

January and I travelled to Erbil on tenth of March and I stayed there for a

month to collect my interviews. In April I worked on the interviews and I

planned to accomplish my work in May or June before the holiday season.

Because of my personal life I continued the work in August 2015. Analysis

of the results was definitely the hardest part and a part where I needed

guidance.

Destination development was a totally new subject for me but it was

interesting to work on in connection with Erbil.

The work was pleasant to do because it was topical and in a same time it

was challenging because the situation in Kurdistan was changing all the

time. The theme was also very interesting to work with and I had high

expectations for it. I would have been able to continue to work with this

study even further. I wanted the study to be exellent because it was

special for me and I wanted to provide useful work for my commissioning

party.

6.4 Suggestions for future research

This study is about the development of a destination and focuses on

Kurdistan’s capital city of Erbil. Erbil was a booming new destination and

tourism was developing fast. My purpose was to research the tourism

development of the city of Erbil and introduce the booming new

destination. Due to the ongoing war in the area, the situation changed

really fast and the development has stopped for an unpredictable period of

time. My research shows that Erbil has potential to become a tourism

51

destination but will it be? What happens next will be interesting and will

Erbil become an international tourism destination? And if Kurdistan

achieves independence, how would it affect tourism? My research

generates many questions, and leaves the future open with space for

further research.

52

REFERENCES

Written references

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Bookwell Oy.

Butler, R. 2006. The tourism area life cycle vol.1. England: Channel View

Publications.

Daher, R. 2007. Tourism in the Middle East: Continuity, change and

transformation. England: MPG Books Ltd.

Godfrey, K. & Clarke, J. 2000. The tourism development handbook. New

York: Martins the Printers Ltd.

Morrison, A. 2013. Marketing and managing tourism destinations. USA

and Canada: Routledge.

Prideaux, B. 2009. Resort destinations. England: Elsevier Ltd.

Schute, H. & Layton, D. 2015. Kurdistan tour guide. Erbil, Kurdistan

Region of Iraq/ Delray Beach, Florida USA: Kurdistan Iraq tours.

Saraniemi, S. 2009. Destination branding in a country context. Joensuu:

Joensuun yliopistopaino

Electronic references

Adib, M. 2013. Iraqi religious tourism declines because of weak Iranian

economy. Al- Monitor. [referenced 23. January 2015]. Available in Al-

Monitor database: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/09/iraq-

tourism-iran-weak-economy-diversity.html#

BBC. 2014. Syria Iraq: The Islamic State militant group. BBC. [referenced

14. May 2015]. Available in BBC- database:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-24179084

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Dreazen, Y. 2012. How the country`s tourism minister makes the hard sell.

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http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/03/i-iraq/308882/

Euromonitor International. 2014. Country Report: Travel and tourism in

Iraq. Euromonitor. [referenced 23. January 2015]. Available in

Euromonitor- database as a file: http://www.euromonitor.com/travel-and-

tourism-in-iraq/report

Global Future and Foresight. 2007. The future of travel and tourism in the

Middle- East- a vision to 2020. Global Future and Foresight. [referenced

23. January 2015]. Available in Global Future and Foresight- database as

a file:

http://www.thegff.com/Articles/78691/Global_Futures_and/Reports/Travel_

and_Tourism/Travel_and_Tourism.aspx

Gov.UK. 2015. Foreign travel advice: Iraq. Gov.UK. [referenced 3. March

2015]. Available in Gov.UK- database: https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-

advice/iraq

Koskinen, M. 2015. Video näyttää, kuinka Isis tuhosi museoaarteita

Mosulissa. Helsingin Sanomat. [referenced 3. March 2015]. Available in

Helsingin Sanomat- database: http://www.hs.fi/ulkomaat/a1424929987929

Länkinen, T. 2015. Unesco vaatii hätäkokousta- Isis hakkasi

vuosituhantiset patsaat murskaksi (video). Yle. [referenced 3. March

2015]. Available in Yle- database:

http://yle.fi/uutiset/unesco_vaatii_hatakokousta__isis_hakkasi_vuosituhant

iset_patsaat_murskaksi_video/7833194

Roland Berger Strategy Consultants. 2014. KRG rapid tourism

assessment scoping. The World Bank. [referenced 3. November 2015].

Available in:

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Assessment_Scoping_Kurdistan_20140615.pdf

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The World Bank. 2014. Natural disasters in the Middle East and North

Africa: a regional overview. The World Bank. [referenced 3. November

2015]. Available in: http://www-

wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2014/03

/06/000442464_20140306122711/Rendered/PDF/816580WP0REPLA014

0same0box00PUBLIC0.pdf

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n_hr_0.pdf

World Tourism Organization UNWTO. 2015. Why tourism? World Tourism

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Oral references

Argoshy, R. 2015. Travel company entrepreneur. Ice Tours. Interview 31

March 2015.

Aziz, K. 2015. Manager of the Erbil International Airport. Erbil International

Airport. Interview 30 March 2015.

2015. Marketing manager. Rotana Hotel Erbil. Interview 19 March 2015.

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Board of Tourism. Interview 10 March 2015.

55

APPENDICES

APPENDIX 1 Location of Kurdistan region

APPENDIX 2 Material from Kurdistan’s General Board of Tourism

APPENDIX 3 International tourist arrivals

APPENDIX 4 Erbil Citadel in 2010

APPENDIX 5 Tourism resource audit

APPENDIX 6 Structure for interviews

APPENDIX 7 Analysing the answers of the interviews

APPENDIX 8 Erbil International Airport in 2010

APPENDIX 9 Divan Hotel in 2013

APPENDIX 10 Grand Swiss Hotel in 2015

APPENDIX 11 Erbil’s cityscape in 2013

APPENDIX 12 Bazar was renovated in 2010 to appear old again. Bazar

on the left side of the picture

APPENDIX 13 Building in Citadel in 2010

APPENDIX 14 Same building as in appendix 13 in 2013

APPENDIX 15 Hilton Doubletree hotel under construction in 2015

APPENDIX 16 Tourism slogan for Kurdistan

APPENDIX 17 Old information board in the city of Amedi in 2015

APPENDIX 18 New information about the Kurdish Textile museum in

Citadel in 2015

APPENDIX 19 Xns caves without any information in 2015

56

APPENDIX 20 Prideaux’s (2009) key factors in Erbil

APPENDIX 21 The interviewees

57

APPENDIX 1. Location of Kurdistan region

APPENDIX 2. Material from Kurdistan’s General Board of Tourism

58

APPENDIX 3. International tourist arrivals

APPENDIX 4. Erbil Citadel in 2010

59

APPENDIX 5. Tourism resource audit

Resource feature

Quality issues Relative uniqueness

Appeal- drawing power

NATURAL

CULTURAL

EVENTS

ACTIVITIES

SERVICES

APPENDIX 6. Structure for Interviews

History and the past of Erbil as a tourism destination

- The purpose of the business? What are the values of the company? - How the business started in here and why? Why the business was

opened in here?

- What was the situation in Erbil on that time? Was there any tourism/

any other tourism business?

- Was Erbil looking for example from other tourism destinations?

- What you think that has been your role of tourism business on that

time?

- Were there any struggles? What helped your business and what

made it difficult?

- Which companies were the first tourism enterprises in Erbil? Who is responsible for developing tourism in Erbil/ Kurdistan region?

- Which main factors have affected most of the growth of tourism? What kind of factors tourism industry is dependent?

Today- The current situation of Erbil as a tourism destination

60

- What is the situation right now in the company/ in Erbil/ and in

tourism business? Who/ Which factors made this situation

possible? - Is the city/ residents ready for bigger tourism in international point of

view? - What are the biggest factors in the field at the moment? - What is the role of your business in the field at the moment? - Is there any cooperation between the tourism companies?

Future

- What you think, what is the situation of tourism in the future?

- What are the potential strengths and weaknesses of the region?

- What kinds of factors are needed for the development? And why?

- What kind of visions or targets you have?

- Who or what will be the biggest factor/s for the future?

- Future plans for your business? Is the company going to expand?

Invest more in tourism? New partnerships?

- Your dream for the future?

- Is there anything else that comes to your mind?

+ Specific questions for The Kurdistan`s General board of Tourism, Erbil

International Airport and Rotana Hotel.

- From which countries you are having visitors?

- What are the most important origins of visitors?

- Have you defined tourist profiles and customer segments for Erbil?

/ Can you describe a profile of a person who would visit Erbil?

- Which would be key themes of Erbil? How would you describe the

position of Erbil in a tourism market? In Middle- East? Globally?

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- Which are the most important sights in the region? Are there any

other existing tourism products and experiences? On what you wish

to visitor in Erbil to focus on?

- How have you organized your tourism development?

- How have you organized your tourism marketing? Do you

cooperate in marketing?

- How the region is marketing the tourism sights internationally/

locally?

- Have city think about environmental impact of the tourism

business?

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APPENDIX 7. Analysing the answers of the interviews

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APPENDIX 8. Erbil International Airport in 2010

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APPENDIX 9. Divan Hotel in 2013

APPENDIX 10. Grand Swiss Hotel in 2015

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APPENDIX 11. Erbil’s cityscape in 2013

APPENDIX 12. Bazar was renovated in 2010 to appear old again. Bazar

on the left side of the picture

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APPENDIX 13. Building in Citadel in 2010

APPENDIX 14. Same building as in appendix 13 in 2013

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APPENDIX 15. Hilton Doubletree hotel under construction in 2015

APPENDIX 16. Tourism slogan for Kurdistan

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APPENDIX 17. Old information board in the city of Amedi in 2015

APPENDIX 18. New information about the Kurdish Textile museum in

Citadel in 2015

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APPENDIX 19. Xns caves without any information in 2015

APPENDIX 20. Prideaux’s (2009) key factors in Erbil

Factors in a destination Erbil

Main tourist attractions

-Natural and built attractions

Natural:

- Qalinj Agha Hill

- Village of Zawi Chemi

- Iraq’s highest mountain

Built:

- City of Citadel

- Choli Minaret

Carrying capacity and sustainability

expressed as land available for

development

The land that has been bombed for

years before has endured wars and

post- construction.

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Availability of natural resources to

absorb visitor flows without

sustaining damage

Diversity of natural resources

Availability of resources such as

water, environmental factors and

political factors.

- Water distribution systems

- Plenty of natural water

- Environmental factors

- Political factors

Avaibility to attract:

-New investments

-Have good distances between

other destinations and other major

generating regions.

- Oil, gas and growing city do

attract new investments

- Erbil is close to two major

cities of Iraq and is located

middle of the Middle East

Marketing Erbil

Effective and representative

marketing

Kurdistan’s General Board of

Tourism is responsible of the local

and international marketing

Right marketing channels and

distribution

Advertising across the whole

Middle East by media, social

media, guides and travel markets

Support Erbil

Support given by local authorities

and residents

- Local authorities support

local tourism sector

- Residents are ready for

tourism

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Volume of support given by

regional, state and national

goverments

- Kurdistan Regional Government is

supporting tourism sector and

cooperates for example with

Kurdistan’s General Board of

tourism and Erbil International

Airport

Investment in new transport

infrastructure.

Government has invested in new

infrastructure and also in airport

External factors Erbil

Impact of competing destinations Erbil stands out from its competing

destinations

Changes in the national and

international economies

- International economy may

affect, because Erbils

economy is built on oil

- National economy has been

stable but external factors

can affect

Ability to adapt to climate change

and to potential threats.

- There is no major climate

changes

- Small earthquakes but don’t

affect

- Wars in Iraq do affect

APPENDIX 21. The interviewees:

• Sadraddin Othman Hamza. Manager of the Kurdistan’s General

Board of Tourism head office

• Assistant of the Kurdistan’s General Board of Tourism head office

• The marketing manager of Rotana Hotel Erbil

• Dara Al- Yaqoobi. Manager of Citadel Erbil. Head of HCECR and

Senior advisor- Council of Ministers

• Las Barznji. Owner and founder of Business Magazine Erbil

• Lolan Sipan. Owner and founder of Kurdish textile museum Erbil

• Kawa Aziz. Manager of Erbil International Airport

• Della Murad. Kurdish fashion designer

• Rekar Argoshy. Ice Tours travel company entrepreneur and police